Book 2: Beginning Again -Carlos Sainz

Chapter 37

Marie was no longer in denial about avoiding the chances of seeing Carlos. It was almost strategic at that point, how she took different routes around the paddock, stuck to the one corner that she knew she could avoid his presence. She sent Mark to most of the meetings, under the guise of 'transitioning' him into the role. Marie had gotten good at it, almost too good. She had dreams about his face almost every night, and most mornings she could swear she would wake up next to him. Being in Maranello made everything worse. Marie set her bags down in her hotel room, letting out a deep breath. She hadn't stayed in a hotel in Italy in a long time because she had always stayed with Carlos. She loved that house, thinking back to the beautiful views and the old building. Marie walked around the room, trying to convince herself that this was better.

"This is a beautiful room! Clean, bright, not infected with anything to do with..."

Marie's thoughts were interrupted by the knock on her door. She opened the door to her dad, staring down at his phone.

"Hey," Gavin said without looking up. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Yeah, sure," Marie replied before she flinched at the object that was barreling towards her. She caught the car keys an inch before her face.

"Can you drive to the factory real quick? I left a briefcase there with a bunch of papers that I need but I have to hop into this meeting."

"Sure, what car am I driving?"

Marie found herself in the driver's seat of a very stylish vintage convertible Ferrari with the top down, enjoying the wind that whipped just past her head. It wasn't a far drive, but long enough to put on some good music and enjoy a nice joyride. She had acquired the bag and was on her way back to the hotel when she glanced over to the Italian countryside that was passing by her. She smiled to herself, thinking about how she was happy. After weeks of pain and sadness, she finally felt... happy. The smile spread across her face as she raised an arm up over the windshield, feeling the wind slice around her hand. She started singing along to the song, completely disregarding the fact that she could not sing worth a damn. All the sudden, Marie felt the car start to slow, hearing a clunking sound. She looked around frantically, but didn't see anything immediately wrong on the old dashboard. She pulled the ever-slowing car off to the side of the road. As soon as she put the car into park, she dialed her dad. Over and over and over again, until it became very apparent that his personal phone was off. Marie put her head into her hands, going through her options.

"Okay, who can I call? Mark. I'll call Mark."

Marie quickly dialed Mark, who also didn't pick up any of the 5 times she tried.

"Fuck, okay, who else is here?" Marie thought, running through a list of colleagues or people she knew that she had their numbers. Her mind immediately went to the one person that she knew she absolutely could not call.

"Okay, I'll wait here for an hour and someone will call back. If not... then I can resort to drastic measures."

**

Carlos was sitting in his apartment, trying as hard as he could to avoid his thoughts. His thoughts about the last time he was in this apartment, thoughts about the random things she had left, thoughts about how bad the football game was that he was watching. He was sitting on the couch, staring at his phone when he saw the notification. He stared at it, blinking a few times before he answered the call.

"Uh, hello?" Carlos said, trying to ignore his heart rate that was skyrocketing.

"Hi," Marie said on the other line. Carlos could tell she was nervous or stressed about something.